Protesters rallied outside Bulgaria’s parliament on Thursday to denounce a controversial legal amendment adopted the day before that bans talk of LGBTQ and so-called nontraditional sexual choices in schools. The amendment bans the “promotion, popularization and support of ideas and opinions related to non-traditional sexual orientation or sexual identification other than biological” in schools. Protesters rally outside Bulgaria's parliament on Thursday in Sofia, Bulgaria. Bulgaria has also declined to ratify the Istanbul Convention on preventing violence against women, because of widespread belief it means to promote LGBTQ rights. European rights groups, like the Belgium-based Forbidden Colors, condemned the legislation as an assault on the fundamental rights of LGBTQ individuals, particularly children.

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Persons: Michaela Vatcheva Organizations: European Union, Protesters, Bloomberg, Getty, Union Locations: Bulgaria’s, Bulgaria, Russia, Russian, Bulgaria's, Sofia, Istanbul, Belgium, Hungary, Bosnia, Moldova, Turkey